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From recent Photographs. 






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TOWN OP MASSENA. N. Y. 

CTT N act of Legislature passed March 3rd, 1802, erected St. Lawrence County, divided it into four towns, Oswegatchie, Lisbon and 

H Madrid, in the northwestern part, and the residue considerably more than half of the area, the town of Massena, out of which has 

J since been organized eighteen of the thirty-one towns of the county. In the settlement of the boundary between Canada and the 

United States in 1822 Barnbarts Island was added to Massena. Its area since then has been about £5 square miles ; leaving out rivers 
and roads, there are but 32,000 acres of assessable land. The soil is very fertile, the surface level or slightly undulating ; viewed in early 
summer along its roads with the shimmer of a river almost constantly in sight, the scene is always pleasant and often picturesque. The 
Racquette and the De Grasse rivers flow through the town in parallel lines about a mile apart, and on the northern boundary is the St. 
Lawrence— magnificent river that grows upon the senses with contemplation, either where it glides in smooth and placid grandeur, or in the 
wild and tumultuous rush of its rapids. It drains a territory of over 400,000 square miles, and its basin reckoned from its extreme source, 
was computed by Darby before the discovery of the Great African lakes, to contain " more than half of all of the fresh water on this planet." 

The first settlement was made at what has long been known as Haskell's Mills by a Frenchman, name unknown, who built a dam 
and saw-mill in 1792, and here the first white child, Peter Hans, was born previous to 1800. The dam was swept up stream the first winter 
after it was built, by what is locally known as back water caused by an ice-gorge in the St. Lawrence below the mouth of the De Grasse, 
turning a portion of the current off the former into the latter, and sometimes occurring so suddenly as to cause a considerable current up 
stream in the De Grasse. The mile-square, near the center of which the mill was situated, which was at that time an Indian reservation, soon 
passed into the possession of Amable Fouche, and remained so until 1808, when the state acquired the title, and sold it to Lemuel Haskell, 
in whom and family the most of it remained till sold three years ago to the St. Lawrence Power Company. In 179.5 George Barnhart, of 
Barnhart Island, progenitor of the families of Barnharts, that have since 1822 owned nearly all of its 1800 acres, leased it from the Indians, 
it then being a Canadian possession, at an annual rental of thirty, afterward increased to sixty dollars. In 1822 when it came into the 
possession of the State and was surveyed, all but two or three hundred acres was bought by the Barnhart's who were excellent farmers and 
soon had substantial buildings and comfortable belongings. Visitors of the Island, in any of all these years retain a lively recollection of 
the pleasant surroundings and cordial hospitality of its inhabitants. 

In the fall of 1798 Amos Lay, a surveyor, began laying out the lands of Massena for the proprietors. In 1799 a road from Oswegatchie 
to St. Regis was surveyed and partly opened. As early as 1800 Clavin Hubbard, Stephen Reed, Mamri Victory, Bliss Hosington, Peter 
Waterbury and his four sons Shadrach, James, Solomon and Sylvester and John Garvin settled at or near the village. The dwelling now 
owned by Julius Richards was built for a school-house and in it in 1803 Gilbert Reed taught the first school taught in town. The same 
year the first bridge was built at the village ; Calvin Hubbard and Stephen Reed built a dam and saw-mill and in 1808 a grist-mill with one 
run of stone. Mr. Reed kept a hotel on the site of Ellen Ransom's residence; Mr. Hubbard lived where Dr. McFadden resides, Sylvester 
Waterbury on Mill Street, John BuUard on the river bank a little above Allen Street, Shadrach, James and Solomon Waterbury on the 
County road a little above the village. Shadrach Waterbury is supposed to have obtained the first deed of a farm-lot executed and recorded 
in 1804 and now in the possession of Mrs. Charlotte Erwin. In 1810 J. K. Smith, Ives Bros, aud J. B. Andrews built stores and engaged 
in trade. Martin Hosmor and Andrew Smith built dwellings, tanneries and shoe shops, and the 24th chapter of R. A. Masons, built 



Massonic Hall that was, till 1853 when it was destroyed by fire, a prominent object and most of the time the principal hotel of the village. 
Later Benjamin Phillips, U. H. Orvis and Joseph Clark engaged in trade and for many years the firms of Orvis & Clark and Phillips & 
Andrews were the only merchants of the villiage. 

The war of 1812 stopped all progress and business, as lumbering was the only industry and its only market was Canada. All able 
bodied men were enrolled as minute men and were required to muster to repel any invasion from Canada or threatened attack from 
Indians. Extensive barracks were built by the government at the center of the town, and occupied during the summer of 1812 by County 
Militia under Col. Fancher, 250 or 300 of the force returning to Ogdensburg in the fall. Early in the summer of that year an American 
barge on its way up from Montreal was stopped at Mille Roche, a guard placed on board and ordered to proceed to Cornwall. The 
British officer being unfamiliar with the channel gave the pilotage to its former commander and crew, who steered it across the foot of 
Barnhart's Island and before the Guard realized his situptiou the boat was moored to the American shore. A Militia training was just then 
in progress at the village and a messenger was despatched there for help. The result was that the Guard was marched to the village 
as prisoners and afterwards paroled. The same year the people of the village thought to protect themselves from possible assault by a 
stockade consisting of round timbers fifteen to eighteen feet long, set in the ground close together, in a line from the river near the Allen 
House, passing near where the Bank stands and somewhat south of Dr. .-Vnderson's house to the river below. Difference of opinion as to 
its proper location, caused abandonment of the work after some of the pickets were set, several of which were standing within the recollection 
of many now living. In September 1S13, a company of about 300 militia from Canada, under Maj. Anderson crossed the river in the night, 
burned a portion of the barracks at the centre, and took several pris^buers who were subsequently released. They also destroyed several 
barges which had been sunk in the De Grasse river and partly exposed by low water. The oflScers brought their horses to what is still 
called Crab Island, situated a short distance from the shore in front of the farm now owned by the Phillips estate. Nothing now remains 
of the Island but a shoal where it once existed. In 1826 it was apparently half an acre in extent with trees of considerable size upon it, 
but was soon after worn awaj' by rafts striking agaiust it. The purpose of bringing their horses to the Island was probably the idea that a 
more extensive inroad than to the centre might be undertaken. 

In 1799 Calvin Plumley settled at the Point, on the farm now in the possession of the heirs of George Snow, who was a son of 
Sally Plumley, born in 1800 and the second white child born in town. Mr. Plumley was soon followed by Leonard Herrick, Elijah Bailey, 
Elisha Dennison, John Lytle, James Stewart, John Policy and Daniel Robinson. Mr. Robinson brought his family in 1803, having pur- 
chased his farm the previous year. His father Ichabod, died in 1804 while on a visit to his son, being the first person hurried in a cemetery 
in Massena. In 1808 he built the brick house in which Holton, his son, lived and died. John Polley settled on the Fish farm in 1803, but 
soon moved to the Sault. Later Garner and Freman Brown, Jared Nimocks, Mr. Wright, Mr. Slack, Mr. Thomas Stedman and Luke 
Boynton settled on the Point. Charles Gurney had a store near Hawkins Point for many years, succeeded by Ebenezer Miner and others. 
At the Centre, Willard Seaton, Nathaniel Kezar and Lemuel Haskill were very early settlers ; Haskill and Seaton were engaged in 
lumbering, the latter very extensively. Later came Samuel Dana, Israel Rickard, Samson Wheeler, Ira Goodrich, Thomas Dodge, and in 
the vicinity Daniel Kinney with his sons Peabody, Whitfield, Joseph and Hart, Hiram Anderson, William Jones, Arad and Peres Smith and 
Ephraim Hyde who had settled first near the Siult and later kept a hotel at a place about midway between the Centre and the village. 
At the Sault, John Polley who had moved from the Point, soon had for neighbors Earl and Naham Stone, .\mo3 and Ebin Polley, M. P., 
A. M., and I. N. Crowley, later Moses Russell, D. W. Proctor, Nathan Dennison, Elijah Flag, Christopher Hughes, Martin Smith. West- 
ward along the St. Lawrence the early settlers were John E. Perkins in 1805, Stephen and Edward Hutchins, Oliver Robinson and John 
Stone at Dodge's Landing where a store was kept for many years by Orvis & Clark. At the hamlet of Racquette river, Willard Seaton in 
1804 commenced the building of a dam and sawmill, but a freshet swept them away before completion. In 1806 Otis G. Hosmor built a 
hotel that he kept for several years, which was afteiwauls maintained by Wilson Bridges. As early, or pievious to 1805, Jacob Chase with 
his sons William, Alden and Hiram, settled in the vicinity, and later, Jesse Seaton, Asa and Edward Day, Joseph Tucker, Joshua, Barn- 
abas, Joseph and Scammon Payne, Nathan Church, John Hitchcock, Robert Young and William A. Eail. Along the north side of the 



Racquette river previous to 1805, Roderick Messenger, David Kellogg, Chester Wells, Ezekiel Colbum and his sons Thomas, Alfred, 
Durastus and Ezekiel Jr., made clearings and built dwellings. On the south side of the Racquette, Truman, John B., Simeon and Norman 
Judd, John Maley, Joel Kilburn, William Wears and J. W. Gould made their homes. 

The Springs, situated on the north bank of Racquette river, withiu the village corporation, were made known to government sur- 
veyors in 1785 by the Indians, and described by them as stinking water coming out of the ground. The principal ingredients as shown by 
analysis of the water, is sulphate lime, chloride sodium, and chloride magnesium. The inhabitants began the use of the waters at an early 
day and SpaflFord speaks of them in 1813 as having a reputation for the cure of cutaneous diseases. Invalids in large numbers have visited 
the springs always with benefit except in cases of pulmonary character. The earliest settlers were Stephen E. Reed and John Polley 2nd 
followed by Parsons White, William, Moses and Parker Nightingale, A. Gibson, J. Bowers and Lucas Douglas. Mr. Polley built in 1822 
the first structure for accommodation of visitors, six years later the Harrowgate House was built by Parsons Taylor. In 1848, Benjamin 
Phillips became proprietor of the Springs and built the United States hotel. This was burned in 1871, and on its site was built the splen- 
did Hatfield House at a cost of |75,(i00. 

Long Sault Island containing about 2,000 acres, was held by the state till 1832 for its possible military importance. It had been 
settled upon by John Hutchins, Stephen Miller, Hiram Wilson and a number of French families from lower Canada. These French 
families were a peculiar people, honest, industrious and frugal, doing their work with the crude implements of the time '' much of it by 
bees" when all turned out to help their neighbor. Their only means of communication with the main shore was by dug-outs, and all 
animals of any size had to be swum too and fro as the occasion required. Road vehicles were few and widely scattered at that early date, 
requiring these people to carry their grain to mill upon their backs An amount of grain, never more than a bushel, was put in a bag, 
the open end securely tied, one corner of the other end tucked in to the other, put over the head as squaws carry their baskets. A unique 
procession of ten to twenty individuals thus loaded, were seen to enter and leave the village about once a fortnight. The French people 
have entirely left the Island, their farms have been absorbed by larger ones and the population of the Island is not more than one third of 
what is was sixty years ago. 

In 1819 the bridge, dam, saw, and grist mill at the villiage were carried away by a spring freshet. In 1825 the village consisted of 
one school-house, one hotel, one saddlers shop, two tanneries, two shoe shops, two blacksmith shops and eighth dwellings. In 1826 the 
store that Snaith & Stearns now occupy was built by Orvis & Clark. In 1829 Joseph Clark built the house now occupied by Horatio G. 
Clark. 

In 1828 U. H. Orvis and J. D. Dickinson bought the water power, and eighty acres of land adjoining the village, and laid a portion 
of it out into streets and villiage lots. In 1830 they sold the water power to a Mr. Judson, who that year built a dam, a saw-mill and the 
house now owned by Dr. McFadden. In 1831 he built the old stone grist-mill. Reed & Hartwell a carding and clothing mill. Benjamin 
Phillips built the store now occupied by David Patterson and the homestead of Mrs. E. S. Phillips. In 1832 Harrowgate Street was cut 
through the woods to the Springs, many buildings were built, and the village had what would now a days be called a boom. 

The town did not suffer from the panic and hard times of 1837 and following years, as did other localities. The Cornwall canal was 
in process of construction. The Durham boats in which most of the freighting on the St. Lawrence was done, had to be hauled up on the 
south side of the river by teams. For this purpose a road was made at the water's edge, and for several years those living along the route 
derived a considerable revenue. Lumber and farm products were in demand and the water lime required for the masonry of the canal 
was manufactured in the village, employing many laborers for several years. 

In 1S15 Dr. Wm. S. Paddock, the pioneer physician, settled in town. Of acknowledged skill in such surgical operations as were at 
that time performed, in the treatment of malarial and other fevers, then very prevalent, he stood at the head of his profession -n the 
county. His ride extended throuyh this town, Louisville and Norfolk, nuich of it over roads impassable except in sleighs or on horseback. 



Of the more recent history, which is withia the recollection of most of the inhabitants, of the organization of its school and churches 
both of which have always been well sustained, there are abundant records. It is the history of a peaceful, prosperous, inteMgent com- 
munity, alive to the progessive ideas of the time, and ready to adopt all practical improvements. The population of the town has hovered 
around the figures of 2800, since 1828 the rural population slightly diminishing by the increase in the size of farms, the growth of the village 
maintaining the figure for the town and in the last three years largely increased them, the number not yet obtainable. It has seven 
churches, ample and expensive school buildings, the health giving springs, the terminus of two important railroads, the usual industries 
incident to a good water power, an extensive butter factory, mechanics, merchants, lawyers and hotels galore, and last but not least, 
the prospect of the creation and use of a vast water power in the immediate future. 

A GREAT ENTERPRISE. 

Along the entire northern border of the town the Long Sault rapids of the St. Lawrence make their " long jump " falling in their 
course fully fifty feet. At a point three and one-fourth miles in a southeasterly direction from the head of these rapids, the De Grasse 
river falls to a level forty-seven feet lower. This is evident to the ordinary observer who is familiar with the rapids and the De Gasse 
river below Haskill's mills and is aware that the lift in the lockage in the Cornwall canal is forty-eigh^ feet. The first conception of a 
plan to utilize this difference of level by taking a portion of the even flow, unaffected by freshet or draugit, an inexhaustible supply of the 
water of the St. Lawrence and, tijrning it into the He Grasse thereby creating an immense waterpower, is due to H. H. Warren, who 
having knowledge of the caiise and objectionable features of the Niagara Water power, saw here the opportunity of obtaining a much 
cheaper one without the difficulties unavoidable at Niagara. Mr. Warren made known his project to Albou Man, an engineer and elec- 
trician, and to Charles R. Higgins, a mill owner and manufacturer, both of whom at once realized the condition and entered heartily into 
the plan. Later Michael H Flaherty and Charles A. Kellogg became partners in the enterprise, obtained options on the right of way and 
au advantageous charter for the prosecution of the work. In furtherance of the oliject a Company was formed, bonds to the amount of 

three millions nf Hollars werp r.lanorl ir, T^nrl^,, «^^ i-^rl, „„.v.«=.,.,»,1 ;„ .v,„ J-.ii -r ior,- <-._-... .. ■ . _. . 

The engineers conducting this enterprise are John Bogart, of New York, and Waller, Kincaid & Manville, of London, Kngland. 
Mr. Bogart has been state engineer of New York for two terms, is a prominent hydraulic engineer, having been connected with the Niagara, 
the Sault Ste. Marie and most of the other large water power developments of the last decade. He is represented at Mas.sena by William 
H. Cushnian. Waller, Kincaid &: Manville represent the electrical portion of this consiruction. 

part of the present season the excavation has been vigorously prosecuted by T. A. Gillespie & Co., of Pittsburg, Pa., who have now in 
operation seven steam shovels, four of which deposit their loads into dump cars and three that deliver their loads to large conveyors 
which deposit it back of the berm line. There are six dredges employed that discharge their dippers into tugs that carry their contents to 
dumping grounds. The average capacity of this Plant is about 14 000 cubic yards in eleven hours. Another dredge of a capacity hitherto 
unapproached being able to raise eight cubic yards of earth at a lift is to be immediately added to this immense Plant. By the construc- 
tion of this work the enoromous amount of 150,000 horse power will be produced that will be utilized in a Power House 700 feet long, 
145 feet wide and 87 feet high, requiring in its construction 80 000 cubic yards of concrete, 30,000 yards of which is in place. A portion of 
this structure is near completion with sets of three twin horizontal turbines in place that will operate under a head of about forty feet. 
Each set of turbines will connect with a 5 000 horse power Westing House generator by a 12} inch shaft. Each generator will weigh 215 
tons and is 21 feet high and will make 150 revolutions per minute. The Power House is situated on the north side of De Grasse river one 
mile north of the termini of the New York Central and Grand Trunk railroads to which a branch road is now in operation making desir- 
able connections. The use of such a plant for electrical or manufacturing purposes must have a marked effect upon the surroundings 
heretofore composed of a prosperous community of farmers and a thriving village of 1200 inhabitants. 




arid 

Locatiori of yRdjacent Waterways. 



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tx^ POWER HOUSE. 

ING A GLIMPSE OF THE 
6f\ASSE[^ivEi\,AueusT 1st, 1900 





foWER. jfoUSE 

DURING CONSTRUCTIO 
/\UGUST I5tH, 1900 








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Power House. When Completed 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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